Men’s Norwood Flames vs Forestville Eagles
The Norwood Flames (5-7) are continuing to hunt for a postseason position and are going up against the top-seeded Forestville Eagles (10-2). This game will truly be a test for the Flames as the Eagles have been dominating the NBL1 Central division, being able to take a game from the Eagles would be an impressive feat for this Norwood squad.
The game opened with a quick 6-0 run for the Eagles before Jack Hemphill hit a tough fade to open the scoring for Norwood. Unfortunately, this bucket didn’t spark any form of momentum for the Flames as they quickly found themselves down double digits. The offensive firepower on display from the Eagles was overwhelming the Flames and highlighting deficiencies in defensive intensity to start the game. This dominance in the first quarter saw the Flames being doubled in points early, as the quarter ended 15-30.
The second opened similarly, Forestville scoring 9 straight before Riley Harrap hit a turnaround jumper to try and find some momentum for Norwood. A score from David Rinaldi made it seem like the Flames had found a consistent way to score and Riley Harrap continuing to hit shots made a promising mid-quarter run for the Flames. Unfortunately, the offence of the Eagles was not slowing down and for every score from Norwood came two from Forestville and their lead expanded. At halftime, the score is 31-66.
Another 6-0 start for the Eagles opened the third. Isaac Miller-Jose got 4 back for Norwood before the Eagles continued their scoring. The next players up for the Flames were the Jacks, both Hemphill and Stanwix found rhythm at the same time and brought some much-needed scoring to the table for Norwood. The Eagles’ entire team was still firing though so the two Jacks scoring wasn’t enough to keep up with their explosive offence. Another quarter down, 51-93.
The fourth quarter displayed a much-improved defence from the Flames as they limited opportunities for the Eagles. The benches of both teams were brought out early in this quarter which gave both teams a look at the exciting young talent developing on their rosters, for the Flames Alex Dodson came on being aggressive and scoring effectively as well as displaying the defensive potential of young talents like David Rinaldi, Jett Swaffer and Guy Lineage. This display of future talent gave the Flames a welcome positive to take away from the match which ended, 64-116.
